


Take Ink And Weep

by mistress_shiny



Category: DTM RPF, Formula 1 RPF, Marvel (Comics), Motorsport RPF, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Knives, M/M, Minor Character Death, Minor Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Probably a bit more later on, Spies, car crashes, mentions of violence perpetrated by children, traitors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-18
Updated: 2015-06-18
Packaged: 2018-04-04 23:45:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4157481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistress_shiny/pseuds/mistress_shiny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daniil Kvyat is a product of the same program that produced the Black Widow but he thought he'd left it all behind.</p><p>Formula 1 and Hydra collide in an unexpected fashion.</p><p>Text inside < this> denotes foreign language it's a comic book thing.</p><p>*Minor RPF Character death - if you need a warning see notes at the end.*<br/>Written for the Understeers 2014 mini-big-bang</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Ink And Weep

February. Take ink and weep,’  
Boris Pasternak.  
Translated by A. S. Kline © 2005

February. Take ink and weep,

write February as you’re sobbing,

while black Spring burns deep

through the slush and throbbing.

Take a cab. For a clutch of copecks,

through bell-towers’ and wheel noise,

go where the rain-storm’s din breaks,

greater than crying or ink employs.

Where rooks in thousands falling,

like charred pears from the skies,

drop down into puddles, bringing

cold grief to the depths of eyes.

Below, the black shows through,

and the wind’s furrowed with cries:

the more freely, the more truly

then, sobbing verse is realised.

 

**************  
Dany hates China, he hates the way his eyes automatically scan the crowd, _threat assessment_ , he hates the crush of people,  _collateral damage_. He hates the loud Russians at their hotel, he hates himself for taking the stairs just to avoid them. He hates the way the car feels this weekend.

 

Nine laps in he gets the corner wrong, he goes wide and suddenly Jev is there on the inside line. He twitches the wheel and something lets go and Dany is a passenger as his nose dips under the side of Jev’s car. There’s a front tire coming at him too fast and his body twists away on instinct  as Jev’s car bounces high and something clips his helmet and it’s like a gunshot. _You don’t know what a gunshot sounds like, but I do…_ The gravel is like a thunderstorm and he can’t see where Jev’s car has gone as his own buries itself in the run off and Marco’s voice is in his ear. “Are you ok Dany, can you get out of the car?”

 _I’m ok, I’m not ok, let me out, let me OUT!_ “I‘m ok,” he replies, his voice calm as his hands shake and struggle with the belt and cables and he pulls himself from the cockpit. The world is fractured and he tries to clear it but his cracked visor won’t move. He sees Jev at last, the car is buried in the tire wall at an angle that makes it look like it was thrown there by some petulant child. Shock crawls at his skin and it’s all he can do to sit down before the blackness takes over.

Dany is grateful for the three week break as everyone but him and Jev ships back to Europe. The doctors say it’s a concussion and they don’t let him fly for a few days. They don’t let Jev fly for weeks: there are broken bones, but no permanent damage. Jev smiles sadly at him when he ignores the sharp voices of the Chinese nurses and plants himself next to the bed with his laptop and a hard drive full of Stargate. They’ve gone through the movie and half of season one before Dany formulates an apology. Jev tells him it’s not his fault, it’s racing, and Dany knows, _no it wasn’t_ , he knows Jev is right.

Dr Marko introduces her to Dany at the factory, she’s blonde, _no she’s not_. Marko always hires blondes, she has red lipstick, _red, that’s better_ ,  and she’s pretty behind the heavy framed hipster glasses. She holds out her hand for him to shake and he swallows hard before he reaches for it.

“Zdravstvujtye, Daniil,” She switches to english, “Call me Nadya.”

“Dany,” he answers and he steps sideways so he’s in her peripheral vision and picks up a pen from Dr Marko’s desk. He watches as she adjusts, it’s a dance of minute movements as she slowly rolls the wad of papers in her hand into a stiff cylinder. They are both smiling and Marko is talking but Dany knows that neither of them is listening, then the door opens and they both spin sharply.  
Marko laughs at their sudden movement and steps between them clapping Dany on the shoulder as he guides him towards the newcomers.

He twists under Marko’s hand and Nadya lets the papers unroll and gives him a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.  _Not here then, later_.  
 Dany lets himself smile as Antonio enters the room, and he tries to let it reach his eyes but he knows he’s probably failed.  _weak._

“Antonio, ciao!” His mind spins, it should have been Carlos brought in to replace Jev, not Antonio, Antonio belonged to Red Bull, Antonio was meant to be safely far away, at a distance where they could pretend to be still friends, far enough away that they could tweet each other platitudes and pretend they weren't almost something more than flatmates and move on. He wants to run but his training, _not that training,_ won't let him so Dany reaches out and pulls Antonio into a hug, and it’s brotherly and there’s backslapping and the voice in his head screams at him as he turns his back on the woman behind him, so he relaxes out of it and introduces them.

“Nadya, this is Antonio Felix da Costa, Ant, this is Nadya, my media manager.”

Antonio smiles and Dany’s seen that smile before, it drips with charm as he takes her hand.

“It’s a pleasure, maybe you can stop him from taking those awful selfies?”

She laughs and throws her head back a little, baring a smooth expanse of throat.  
 “I would, but they fit so well with the demographic.”

“Ah well, maybe we can talk some time about my demographic?” Antonio turns the smile up a notch and Dany can’t help himself as he snorts out a laugh. They both turn and Nadya raises one perfectly arched eyebrow at him.

“I’d love to, unfortunately I think I’ll have my hands full with Daniil.”

Marko places a hand on her waist and guides them towards the door.  
 “Dany, can you take Nadya back to the apartments? She’s taken the one across from yours. Plenty of time for you and Antonio to catch up later, we’ve put him the apartment next to you, but I need him here for a while longer.”

 

There are things Dany knows. Things a Racing Driver shouldn’t know. Things a 19 year old boy shouldn’t know. Things a Russian… _Well._ the voice in his head whispers, _They are stereotypes for a reason._ He knows she won't attempt anything with witnesses now, so he’s relieved when one of the mechanics decides to catch a ride back to the apartments with them. Dany drives, flicking the car through the narrow Italian streets while James idly chats up Nadya from the back seat. Her accent is everywhere and nowhere at once, generic European. She tells James she’s been working in America for the last few years but Europe would always be home. _Keep it vague, don’t answer direct questions._

James carries her bags to their door and leaves thinking he has a chance. They stare at each other across the hall for a long minute before she glances at the security camera then turns her back on him.  
  
“<It doesn’t have to be like this. I just want to talk.>” her voice is low and the cadence of her russian is like acid poured over his nerves. The door opens with a click and Dany crosses the hall in one quick movement following her into the room. He reaches for her shoulder and she lashes out with an elbow catching him in the ribs as she spins. He huffs out a breath and blocks her next shot with his forearm. _block, attack, repeat_. He steps close trying to use his height as an advantage, trapping her against the wall.

“<stop, Daniil. I’m not a threat>” She whispers as he gets an arm against her throat. _liar, assassin.  
_  “<I got out, I’m not going back.>” the words are harsh and he punctuates them with more pressure against her windpipe. _You can never get out._

“<silly child, I’m here to help you.>” She gets a hand free and smacks him in the temple and they fall against the bed, she’s quicker than he is and he is cuffed to the bed before he can blink.

“<Now, you will listen to me.>” she says as she settles her hips over his. She takes off her now broken glasses and rubs her eyes.

“Why do you have to be so difficult? I liked those glasses.” she switches back to english and puts a hand on his chest.

“I’m. here. to. help.” She pokes him hard with a finger to his solar plexus on every word.

“After the shitstorm in New York someone decided to tidy up loose ends, you are a loose end, I’m here to get you out.”

He knows she’s telling the truth, she could have killed him six ways to Sunday as they fought, and she didn’t. _you’re out of practice, it was eight._  
“It’s been twelve years.” he says.

“You learned your lessons well, you went to ground, others who tried to expose them didn’t last as long. You are on a list Daniil, you know you can never get out.”

“I can’t disappear, I have a life,” he twists his hands in the cuffs and they rattle, _dislocate the thumb, get out._ She looks at him sharply.

“Don’t do it.” She slides her hand up his chest and presses hard just under his collarbone.

“It only takes a little pressure, Dany, I could pop your collarbone, then you wouldn’t be able to drive, you’d be replaced. I could make it permanent, but then I’d be no better than them.”

“Who’s Them?” he asks.

She doesn’t get to answer as the door swings open and Antonio is there carrying the bags they’d left forgotten in the hallway.

“Nadya, I thought you might like a hand carrying these in. I was just about to go grab some dinner if you like to.. uh” Nadya twists and drops a pillow over Dany’s cuffed wrists. Ant pauses at the end of the hall.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt.” He blushes but his eyes are hard as he takes in the sight of her still stretched up along the length of Daniil’s body.

She pushes herself up and the blush that colours her cheeks almost convinces Dany that they _had_ been doing something inappropriate. _mata hari, black widow_.  
“It’s not…” Dany starts, but she cuts him off.

“We should have brought those in,” she bites her lip and slides off the bed, her short skirt  riding even higher up her thighs and now Ant’s attention is only on her.

”I just couldn’t wait….” She plucks the bag from his fingers and he swallows hard as she stands on her tip toes to whisper conspiratorially in his ear. “I have a thing for men who drive fast.”

Ant doesn’t answer, he just spins on his heel and walks out the door.

“Call me.” She calls after him, and Dany thinks the laughter in her voice might be genuine.

 

“You didn’t have to do that, he’s my friend.” Dany hisses at her as she stalks back to the bed and produces a key to unlock the cuffs.

“He’s not your friend, Dany. He’s your weakness, you know he shouldn’t be here, they put him here to get to you.”

“He’s not one of us.” Dany spits as he sits up and rubs his wrists.

She shakes her head, “He doesn’t have to be, he just has to be easy to hurt.”

“Now tell me, who are they?”

She shrugs.

“KGB, Red Room, remnants of Hydra, it doesn’t matter Dany. You knew this would happen one day. Your time is up.”

Cold rushes through Dany’s veins, he knew what had happened, about the fall of SHIELD, he’d seen the HYDRA carriers fall into the Potomac. _he’d searched the records on the internet for anything that might lead someone to connect the dots, he hadn’t searched hard enough._

He wants to tell her she’s wrong, that he’d been careful, but he can’t find the words.

He walks out and she lets him.  
  
 He lets himself into his own apartment and paces the room for a minute then opens the door to the balcony. His eyes scan the street and he curses as he catalogues all the familiar cars and the plumbing van that had sat near the corner every day for the last week. He curses again as he closes the balcony door and pulls the curtains. He drags his coffee table to the centre of the room and balances as he pulls the smoke alarm from its housing. The bug is smaller than he remembers them, the tiny camera masquerading as an led light. Dany’s fingers shake as he tries to extract the device, then frustration hits and he flings it across the room with a crash. It feels good and he picks up the lamp from the side table and it follows the smoke detector into the wall.

There’s a banging at his door and he freezes, heart pounding.  He slides a knife from the kitchen drawer as he places his back against the wall.

“Who is it?” he asks. _Holding his breath for a shotgun blast that doesn’t come._

“Dany, it’s me.” Antonio’s voice comes through the closed door.

Dany presses his hand to his forehead.

“Go away,” he tries, already knowing it’s a lost cause.

“Let me in Dany.” Antonio’s voice is pitched with the surety that they’ve done this a hundred times before and it always turns out the same way.

Dany opens the door and stands there staring for a second. He wishes this was just another argument about the playstation, or towels left on the floor, or nights when they both couldn’t sleep and they sat until late teaching each other their mother tongues.  This wasn’t how it was meant to go, although he wasn’t sure how this reunion was ever going to turn out well after he’d left their apartment while Antonio was racing. They’d barely spoken in person since Dany had beaten the older man out for the Torro Rosso seat.

Antonio just shakes his head and pushes past him into the apartment.

“How could you be so stupid Dany? Girls like that are dangerous.”

 

Dany barks out a laugh as he slips the knife behind a couch cushion as he follows the other man into the room.

“Ant, you have no idea,” _you really don’t_. “I told you it wasn’t what you thought it was, just believe me?"

"Believe you? Like I believed you when you said you'd see me Monday? That was 6 months ago, I came back to find all your things gone? I thought we’d been robbed until Carlos told me that you’d left."

Dany flinches at the hurt in Antonio’s voice, he doesn’t want to get into this now, he needs to get him out of the apartment.

“What does it matter who I want to sleep with? You made it very clear you didn’t want me.”

Antonio steps back like he’s been slapped.

“I didn’t… fuck…” he scrubs a hand over his face. “Dany, I never said I didn’t want you.”

“Get out.” Dany chokes down all the things he wants to say and repeats himself. “Get out, Antonio, please, Nadya’s not, it’s not what you think. I can’t do this right now.”

 

“You know what Dany, I don’t even care what it was. You’re an idiot, and I’m an idiot as well. You walked out without a word, I had to find out from twitter that you had an F1 seat. You didn’t even have the guts to tell me yourself.”

 

“I couldn’t…”  
Ant doesn’t let him finish, stalking across the room heedless of the broken ceramic crushing underfoot. For a second he thinks Antonio is going to hit him, _let him try_ , he wants Antonio to hit him,  
 “Couldn’t what Dany? Couldn’t tell me you were leaving me behind? Couldn’t tell me you were too good for me anymore? I got it, loud and clear.”

Dany closes his eyes for a moment.

“I couldn’t say goodbye.” _couldn’t say I love you._

And like a rubber band snapping, the tension is gone and Ant is there, so close _, too close, not close enough.  
 _ “Idiot.” and Ant’s hands are in his hair pressing their foreheads together and he feels Antonio’s breath across his lips. And this was them, a dozen moments when neither of them had the guts to close the distance between, and fuck it, _I might die tomorrow,_ and this time Dany does, Antonio’s lips taste like coffee and spice and it’s slow and warm and Dany wishes that he could freeze time and stay right there forever.

The shrill noise of Dany’s phone cuts through the stillness of the room and they spring apart.

Dany looks at his phone, the caller id is ‘<Answer it>’ in Russian, he knows who it is, he wonders when she got at his phone. He flicks the call to decline and looks at Antonio who is smiling at him uncertainly.

“You…”  
“I…”  
They both speak at once. Dany looks down at the floor.

“You need to go.” He risks a glance and wishes he hadn’t, hurt and confusion war on Antonio’s face before they resolve into the hard set of anger once again.

He can see Antonio working himself up to say something but he doesn’t want to hear it.

“Please Antonio, just go.” And this time it works and Antonio heads for the door. He opens just as Nadya reaches up to bang her fist on now empty air.  
She looks between the both of them and steps into the apartment.

“Dany, they’re coming, we have to go.” She throws a black duffle bag at Antonio who catches it instinctively. She checks the safety on a sleek black handgun then passes it to Dany.

“Antonio, I need you to stay behind Daniil, we’ll take the back stairs.”

“What the fuck? What is going on?” Antonio looks at the gun in Dany’s hand and drops the bag backing out of the apartment, his eyes wide.

Dany checks the glock’s magazine automatically. _16 in the cassette, 1 in the chamber._

“Antonio, wait, you don’t know what’s going on.” Antonio steps out of view and Dany rushes to the door to stop him.  
Dany’s stomach drops as he turns the corner to find his trainer Pyry, one arm around Antonio’s throat the other hand pressing a gun to his temple.

“Pyry.” The word slips from his lips, _traitor_.

“Oh look at you, so shocked, did you truly think no one was watching, Dany?” the Finn smiles. Antonio struggles against the hold, words choked into nothingness by the arm against his windpipe.

“Let him go, he’s got nothing to do with this,” Dany manages and out of the corner of his eye he can see Nadya silently pulling herself up through the manhole in the ceiling of his hallway.

“Dany, you confided in me, I was your friend, I know what he means to you.”

“Let. him. go.”

“Or what, you’ll shoot me? You haven’t held a gun in years, you might hit your friend here.”

Dany hesitates, _collateral damage - take the shot_ , then a dark shape slips from the ceiling and lands silently behind the Finn.

“Pyry, please…” he tries one more time because he has to, they’ve spent too long together for him not to.

“God you are pathetic, I don’t know why they didn’t just have me kill you months ago and be done with it.”  He presses the gun hard against Antonio’s temple and Antonio stills in his grip, the fear paralysing him.

“I’m going to kill him, then I’m going to kill you, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

Dany’s hand shakes, _take the shot_ , and he sees Pyry’s finger tighten against the trigger.

 

Nadya snakes a hand around Pyry’s throat and the universe stops for just a second as the assassin's eyes widen and he realises what just happened. Pyry raises his hands to a throat that is now open where it should be closed and Antonio begins to fall away limply as blood pumps from the wound splashing over Antonio’s neck and shoulder. Antonio drops sideways against the wall as Pyry drops to his knees falling forward raising his weapon towards Antonio. Dany doesn’t hesitate this time and the bullet hits Pyry square between the eyes before Dany even knows he pulled the trigger. Then he’s kneeling before Antonio whose eyes are locked on the body and he’s shaking his shoulders gently.

“Antonio, are you hurt, you have to get up.” He keeps his voice soft, but there’s a note of command that wasn’t there before. Nadya steps over the body and retrieves the duffle bag.

“We have to go, there’s more coming.” The command in _her_ voice is unmistakable and Dany drags Antonio to his feet pushing the stumbling man along the hallway.

Nadya pauses at the doorway to the back stairs and a Russian curse slips from her lips.

“Cover your ears.” She says and Dany pulls Antonio in close as she throws a cannister into the stairwell.

There is a loud bang and they enter the stairwell, smoke rising about them as they step over bodies of the tacteam which had been on the stairs.

The carpark is clear and she starts towards his car.

 

“Give me the keys, I’ll drive,” Nadya says as they cross the carpark.

Dany just looks at her. She rolls her eyes at him.  
 “Fine, put Antonio in the back.”  Dany bundles Antonio into the back seat, pushing him down so he’s prone and buckling a seatbelt awkwardly around him.

“You have to stay down, ok” Antonio nods, eyes wide. He’ll deal with Antonio later, for now he can use the pliability of someone in shock to his advantage.

Shouts come as he starts the engine, and the first bullets ping across the ground as he puts the car in gear and peels out of the carpark. He knows they won’t be far behind so he throws the car into the corners hoping to lose them in the back streets. Nadya pulls a small device from her bag and attaches it to the dashboard.  
“Signal Jammer.’’ Dany nods, of course they were tracking his car.  
“Phone.” She demands and he pulls his phone out and hands it to him. She tosses it out the window as they pass a field full of cows. She reaches over and pats down Antonio’s still form until she find his phone and it too goes out the window. Dany tilts the rear vision mirror to glance at Antonio, who has his eyes shut tight as though if he doesn’t watch then this isn’t happening. They hit a bump and Dany fixes his eyes on the road, ignoring the look of, _what’s that?_ sympathy. Nadya gives him.

They spot the black SUV again as they hit what passes for downtown doing twice the speed limit, and he curses the lack of a true city to hide in. The tight laneways of Faenza are a maze of one way streets that he has to navigate before they hit the highway. Nadya’s voice cuts through his internal navigation.

“Take a left here” Nadya says sharply and the back of the car steps out as they cross take a sharp turn into the Piazza and flowers pots and tables are scattered underneath their wheels.

He glances in the rearview and sees a black SUV brake hard and do a lumbering turn.

“Left,” she shouts and he twitches the wheel again.

“Right” the car slides and a line of motorbikes falls like dominos.

“Stop” He screeches the cars to halt in what looks like a dead end. She is out of the car in a blink and he follows her dragging Antonio from the back seat as she pulls a dirty canvas sheet from behind a stack of bins and covers the car. She nods at the old wooden door in the wall.

“There.” Dany pulls Antonio close  as he watches the entrance to the narrow alley for their pursuers.

Nadya inserts a key into the doors and then puts her shoulder to it and shoves and it gorans as the ancient wood pulls free of the stone and opens into…

A short flight of stairs and a surprisingly neat apartment.

There is a single bowl and spoon drying on the sink. A half used bottle of olive oil stands beside the small stove. A paperback with a bookmark sticking out sits on the couch, an obviously watered pot of basil and other herbs perched on the window sill.

“How long?” he asks her as she pushes aside a small watercolor landscape hanging on the wall and keys a code into a number pad.

She doesn’t answer, just waves her hand in the direction of a closed door along a short hallway.  
“The bathroom is through there, you need to get him cleaned up. There’s clothes in the closet in the hall.”

Dany manhandles Antonio into the bathroom and her voice follows him out of the room. “Give him something to help him sleep, we need to talk.”

 

Dany pushes the lid down on the toilet and sits Antonio down, he tries not to look at his friend as he opens the well stocked medicine cabinet and grabs a bottle of pills and fills the glass by the sink with water.

“Drink this.”

Wordlessly Antonio takes the pills and glass as Dany turns the shower taps and tests the water. Once satisfied he turns back to Antonio who is staring at his reflection in the mirror, dried blood plastering the hair on one side to his head and spilling down his neck and shoulder like some bad halloween costume.

“You need to get clean, the water will help.” Antonio still doesn’t speak as Dany pulls at his shirt and tugs it over his shoulders, he only makes a small noise at the sucking sound the shirt makes where the blood has stuck it to his skin. Dany guides him to his feet and Antonio’s fingers fumble at his belt before Dany pushes them aside and  helps him remove his jeans and boxers in one motion. He pushes him gently under the steaming shower and turns to leave but a small noise makes him turn back and he sees Antonio leaning heavily against the wall, his shoulders shaking gently.

This time Dany doesn’t hesitate, he steps into the shower, heedless of the water now soaking his clothes and wraps his arms around Antonio, a mindless stream of reassuring words falling from his lips getting lost in the relentless beat of the shower.

 

Antonio slumps against him, then turns burying his face in Dany’s neck as the adrenaline leaves his body. Dany lets Antonio’s weight pull them down and they slide gracelessly to the tiles.

Dany pulls the older man close, carding his fingers through his damp hair as the water streams down on them. He presses kisses against his temple as his fingers work at the dried blood, letting friction and the water melt it away.

“I’m sorry, Ant, so sorry, I didn’t mean for this, any of this, to happen. I just wanted a normal life.”

He swallows hard against the lump that rose in his throat as the memory of Antonio with Pyry’s gun pressed against his head flashes in sequence with Pyry’s lifeless eyes staring up at him from the hallway floor.

 

Fuck, Pyry, fuck. Dany lets out a shuddering breath. He’d killed him, sure, he was dying anyway, Nadya’s blade saw to that, but it had been Dany’s shot that had stolen the light from his eyes. How had he not known. Pyry had arrived with the Torro Rosso announcement and blended in seamlessly, following him on mad adventures through the backstreets of cities at three A.M. when jet lag had kept them both awake and buzzing with the excitement of being in Formula One and on top of the world. Pyry who’d sat in airports and hotels, never complaining, always pushing Dany to work harder, be better.

Pyry, who’d held a gun to the only person Dany had ever come close to being in love with.

He wouldn’t cry, you didn't cry over traitors, you stopped them. He’d stop them.

 

Antonio’s shaking slows as they sit there and Dany loosens his hold slightly as Antonio raises his head, his eyes red rimmed.

“What’s happening Dany?” His voice is rough and a pale pink drip of dirty water slips down from his hairline. Dany reaches up and wipes it away and Antonio leans into his touch. He wants to kiss him and tell him everything will be alright, but he’s not sure it would be welcome, if it should be welcome, and it’s not the time or the place.

“I’ll tell you soon, you need to get clean and get some rest, we need to keep moving.”

 

He stands slowly pulling Antonio to his feet he reaches for the washcloth and soap and begins to scrub at the blood still set on his skin. He’s wanted this so many times, Antonio warm, pliant and naked, but not like this, _you can’t have nice things_ , he notices the red tinted water running fast toward the drain and he swallows hard against the hot bile that rises in his throat.

Ants hand comes up to cover his and he stills.  
 “I can do this.” Antonio says and Dany releases his grip on the washcloth and it feels like he’s losing something more as he steps out of the shower cubicle. A hand reaches out and catches his wrist.

“You’ll tell me everything, yes?” There’s a spark of fire in Antonio’s eyes as he holds Dany’s gaze.

“Yes.” The word feels like a slamming door between them.

 

***

He finds dry clothes for both of them and leaves a pile for Antonio to find when he’s done with this shower. He ignores the look Nadya gives him as he squelches through the apartment and leaves a pile of damp clothes in the hallway out of petulance.

 

He sits down at the small kitchenette across from Nadya as she taps away at a slim laptop.

“What’s going on? If you only wanted me to go to ground why bother setting up a safe house, and getting a job with Torro Rosso? You could have just grabbed me off the street, Natasha.”  
Her eyes flick up at that.

“So you know.”

He laughs and it’s a laugh edged with broken glass.

“Of course I know, Natasha Alia Romanova, the Black Widow. You’re a legend you know, a ghost.” _defector…_

“I’m not the ghost.” She swipes a hand over her face as a memory flashes briefly over her features, most wouldn’t notice, _you’re trained to notice,_ the slight tightening between her eyes is gone in a heart beat.

 

“I didn’t know how much you remembered, I wanted to draw them out.”

“You were going to use me as bait?” She cuts him off before he can muster too much indignation.

“You aren’t the only one Dany, they are tying up loose ends, all of them. How many children did you train with? A dozen? Two dozen? They are all targets and I need to find them.”

“Why?”

“Because I have red in my ledger.” Her eyes are hard and she touches the small golden arrow that hangs around her neck.

He shakes his head.

“Why did they come for me? I didn’t even complete the program.”

Her lips tighten.

“You’re high profile, they couldn’t risk you deciding to tell your story. They already tried to kill you once.”

“China…” He fights the urge to slap his forehead, he knew there was something wrong with the car.

“Yes. Now we have to keep moving, I’ve laid a dummy trail with flights to South America from Milan. But we need to go to Paris.”

The door from the bathroom opens and they both turn, Dany opens his mouth to speak but Natasha stands and greets him with a warm smile.

“Antonio, you must be tired.”

He nods silently at her, the drugs clearly slowing his movements.

She lays a hand on his forearm and walks him down the hall, throwing Dany a filthy look as she steps over the pile of wet clothes.

“There’s a bed already made up, you can sleep here.”

For a moment the walls muffle her voice and then she’s back.

“I’ve sent through cover to the office as well, you are on your way back to Russia, family emergency, Antonio is going with you.”

Dany’s breath leaves him in a rush.

“My family, I need to contact them.”

She raises an eyebrow at him but slides a phone across the table.

He thumbs in the number.

“<Mother, it’s Dany, yes, I’m ok. Mum, Aunt Mishka is coming to visit ok?>” his throat tightens around the words, and he hears the catch in her voice as she answers him.

“<Da, I love you too. I have to go.>” He means it, they’d been good to him, of course they weren’t actually family, but they’d managed to make a good go at pretending to be one.

He half expects her to toss this phone out the window too, but she slips it into her jean.

“it’s scrambled, they couldn’t find it if they tried.” She answers his unspoken question and continues.

“A get out code? At least you had sense enough to set one up.”

“They’re good people.”

“They’re a security guard and dinner lady, I’m surprised you weren’t shot your first week out.” Her voice is dry and he searches her face for some clue of what she’s thinking, then she smiles.

“You covered well though, a gas explosion in the kitchens. Caused enough chaos to give you time to escape. Where did you get the bodies?”

His fingers twitch at the memory of dragging the frozen corpses into the kitchen with the man he’d come to call father helping him.

“Homeless, they’d frozen to death in the winter, you should know in Russia there’s never any shortage of bodies in the cold.”

She rubs at her fingertips, and it’s a slight movement, and he can see she knows that cold, the way the wind blows hard from Siberia and freezes the breath in your lungs.

“I’d been stashing money for months, and I’d been watching them, their secret relationship, I blackmailed them at first, I didn’t have to, she was barren, they wanted a child.”

Natasha nods, he thought she knew all this already but it felt good to say it out loud to someone who wasn’t going to judge him.

“We decided on somewhere sunny, Italy seemed like a good choice, we settled in, it was hard at first, some things were reflex, I can't say how many times I had to fight down the training when some kid picked on my at school, then I found karts and it was something I was good at, something not trained, just me.”

He takes a deep breath.

“Natasha, i can’t give that up, I’ll help you take them out, but I’m not giving up my life.” There, it was out in the open. he tensed for her rebuttal.

She studies him for a moment, then nods.

“We need to act fast, and it doesn’t stop with this cell Dany we have to get them all or they’ll keep coming for you and all the other children from the program. Get some rest, we need to leave early tomorrow.” She stood and walked to the couch and held out a blanket and pillow to him.  
  
“We should be safe here but I’ll take first watch just in case.”

Dany glances at the hallway where light seeps out from the door where Antonio is sleeping.

“You should go to him.” Her voice is soft.

Dany shakes his head sadly.

“I’m a stranger to him now.”

***

Dany awakes to the sound of voices and the quiet hum of the radio. He lays still, instincts on high in the unfamiliar room. He’s not alone, it takes a moment for his brain to catch up to the fact that they’re speaking Portuguese. He spent months pretending to learn a language he already knew, it feels good to not have to filter out that part of his brain. He listens quietly.

“<So, are you both, assassins or something?>” Ant’s voice is slightly frayed around the edges.

“<We’re soldiers, our war just never came.>” Dany thinks that she’s being honest, even if they were made for very different wars.

“<Superheroes, aliens in New York, it just seemed so far away.>”he pauses, “< Are you?>”

“<Super? No.>”  
  _Enhanced, long-lived._ Dany’s mind fills in the space between her words.

“<Not an alien either. Just very well-trained.>” Dany can hear the smile in her voice.

“<Dany?>” Ant’s voice cracks around the word and Dany can’t take it anymore so he sits up from the sofa.

“<No, it’s just training, practice. Like anything else.>” He holds Ant’s eyes for a second.

<“You speak Portuguese.”> the surprise is evident and Dany draws in a breath and looks Antonio in the eye.

<”Yes, a little.”> He drags a t-shirt over his head, grateful for the thin cloth barrier between him and the rising heat of Antonio’s anger.

<“So all that time I spent trying to teach you, was a lie?”> Antonio’s voice is hollow and raw.

“It wasn’t…” Dany tries, switching back to English, but Antonio cuts him off.

“What else was a lie Dany?”

“You’re a killer, you shot your trainer. How many other people have you killed?”

The memory of Pyry falling lifeless at his feet claws at Dany’s throat, followed quickly by others, training, missions, the brutal reality of a school for killers. He swallows down the memories and barely notices as Natasha slips from the room.

“Ant, please, don’t.”

“How many Dany?” Antonio stands from the table. The chair scraping back.

“Too many.” Dany knows it’s not an answer but it’s the best he can give. Some of them are blurs in his memory, some of them he can still see the last tear slipping down their cheek. Some will never leave him.

“Was I just practise? A play at being normal, someone for you to pretend with?” Antonio pushes the hair back from his face in frustration.

“You were everything.”

Dany watches as Antonio hesitates at his words.

“Then why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

“Because I didn’t want you to look at me the way you are looking at me now. Like I’m a monster. I didn’t want to be who they made me, I didn’t have a choice, I was a child.”

 

“I thought you still were, but now I realise I don’t know you at all.” Antonio’s voice is low.

“You were the only person who ever nearly did.”  
  
He spots it at the last moment, a flicker of red laser light across the porcelain of the cup. It is only training that keeps him alive. Dany snakes out an arm and drags a yelping Antonio off  the chair and behind the couch as the first bullet hits the bowl of fruit on the table.

Natasha comes running, crouched low and leans against the wall of the hallway.

“They’re in the laneway, take the roof.” She answers Dany’s unvoiced question and nods towards a trapdoor cord hanging from the ceiling.

“Sniper” Dany huffs out, Ant is holding his breath against him and Dany places a reassuring hand on his shoulder keeping him close.

“I got it.” She pushes against the wall with both feet sliding to where they are crouch behind the end of the couch. She winks and reaches between their feet and slides a sleek black rifle from beneath the couch. She reaches beneath the loose shirt she is wearing and hands Dany her Glock.

“Get to the roof, Northwest corner, there’s a go-bag behind the air vent. I’ll meet you at the station in an hour, if I don’t arrive, get out of town, go to ground Dany, I’ll find you.” _if i can…_ It’s unspoken but he knows it’s there. A bullet explodes the plate of pastries.

“Ready?”

<”Natasha. Thank you”> 

The smile she gives him is almost soft as she steadies herself on one knee and readies the rifle.

“Go.”

Dany tightens his grip on Antonio, pushing him in a crouch across the floor as Natasha aims her rifle over the couch and begins to shoot through the open window.

Dany reaches for the  trap door cord and pulls, a short ladder falls from the ceiling. He checks the gun and looks at Antonio.

“I need you to follow me, stay low ok?” Ant just nods, fear blowing his pupils wide.  
Dany climbs the ladder quickly and slides the roof hatch to the side and pulls himself through just in time to see a body fall from the rooftop across from theirs. He reaches down a hand to Antonio  and pulls him up. They run in a crouch across the rooftop but no bullets follow them. From the apartment below comes the crack of a flash grenade and the snap of bullets.

Dany shoves aside the paint cans stacked near the airvent until he finds the black backpack and throws it over his shoulder.  He peers over the edge of the rooftop as four more heavily armed men enter the mouth of the alleyway dressed in the garb of La Polizia but Dany knows these are no police officers. He tugs at Antonio’s arm and pulls him to the other corner of the building where a trellis leads down past the window to Natasha’s kitchen into a walled garden he’d noticed the night before. He tests the weight and turns to Antonio as more gun shots come from the open window below.

“Can you climb down ok? Keep to the left away from the window. I need to help her, there’s too many.”

Ant swallows.

“Yes.”  
 Dany looks at him for a moment and thinks of all the things he wants to say but he just reaches into the back and pulls another glock from the bag before pushing the bag into Antonio’s hands.

“Take this, wait ten minutes. If I don’t come, get back to the factory, they won’t come after you if they have me.”

Antonio’s mouth works at words that don’t come and Dany pushes him gently toward the trellis, he aims his guns at the window ready to lay covering fire if anyone so much as blinks in Antonio’s direction, as he climbs down. He waits until his friend crouches behind an ancient olive tree before turning back to the roof hatch.

He doesn’t hesitate, just relies on training that isn’t that easily forgotten as he drops from the roof into the room. The first bullet takes the one closest to him in the neck and he falls before the others even realise Dany is in the room. Natasha is pinned in the hallway but Dany’s entrance is the distraction she needed, springing  forward to grab the gun of the attacker closest to her and yanking him off balance as he looks at Dany’s form. She swings the butt of his gun up taking him on the chin before twisting the p90 in her grasp and shooting at the man on her left.

  
Dany turns both guns towards the stairs and begins shooting as the next wave reach the top of the stairs.  Natasha presses herself back against the hallway wall as a spray of bullets arc across the room.  Dany dives behind the couch, still shooting. He sees the first two men go down whether from his bullets or Natasha’s he doesn’t know.  He swings his arms up over the bullet riddled couch and fires again, grateful for the glock’s extended capacity. He rises from his crouch to try to get an angle down the stairs and pain blooms in his shoulder, he stumbles backwards as something else stings at his cheek. He sees the gunman come up the stairs and knows this next shot will be the last, but suddenly there’s not wall where he expected it to be and he’s falling backwards through the open window.

And then there’s only blackness.

 

“Dany, oh god. Dany”

  
Pain. 

“Oh shit, you’re bleeding.”

Pressure, pain spiking through his shoulder.

He wants give in to the darkness and just float away.

“Don’t, please, don’t leave me Dany.”

Everything hurts. Something warm wraps around him. His head rests against something warm and firm. For a moment he feels safe then the blackness comes again.

_get up._

<“Stay still, Daniil.” >

He draws in a shuddering breath and the movement hurts. There is a tugging feeling at his side and he manages to open his eyes. It’s too bright, and his head is pounding, _be still,_ he forces himself to adjust taking shallow breaths against the pain.  
 He looks down and sees Natasha  tying off  a short line of stitches in his side.

He tries to speak but his throat is too dry and he coughs instead. Pain blooms from the top of his arm and at his side. He closes his eyes and leans back, as the pain washes over him. Something cool is pressed against his forehead and he turns into the soothing touch.

“Water.” a straw touches his lips and he sucks at it greedily.

He opens his eyes again and Antonio is there, holding the glass and a cloth, he looks tired and there is blood on his shirt.

“Where are we?” Dany manages after a few more sips. The room looks vaguely familiar but from this angle he can’t place its clean lines and white tiles.

Natasha looks up from where she is taping a gauze pad over the stitches.

“The last place they’d expect.” She smiles that tilted half smile and Dany looks to Ant for an answer.

“The factory, well the gym anyway.”

Dany looks around and realises where they are. The physio room at the factory. He and Pyry didn’t use it much, they both preferred to be out in nature for training. He swallows against the tightness in his chest.

 

“Antonio managed to hide you both until I found him, then we laid low until nightfall and came here, it was his idea actually.”

“I knew there was first aid here, she wouldn’t let me take you to a hospital.And no one would be here for the weekend.” Antonio almost smiles at Natasha.

Dany tries to pull himself upright but the room spins, Antonio is there though, putting an arm around him and helping him sit up on the edge of the table..  
“Take it easy.”

“Everything hurts.” Dany grits out.

“You fell out of the window you idiot, I thought you said you weren’t a superhero.”

Dany grins and squints at him.

“I survived.”

“You scared me.” Antonio’s arm is still around his  waist and Dany wants to lean his head on the other man’s shoulder. It had always been so easy to be close to each other, leaning into each other on the pitwall, sprawled on couches, casual touches. He’d missed it so much.

 

Dany’s mind is racing with all the things he should be doing. _Take inventory, make a plan, check the perimeter._ He pushes them all aside.

“I meant it you know.” he tries. Antonio is silent beside him and Natasha just gives him a nod and melts from the room. _at least someone is being professional.  
_ “You are the only person who really knew me.”

“You should have told me.” Ant slips around until he is facing Dany and his fingers reach out to brush at the bandage on his shoulder, Natasha had obviously stitched the bullet wound up while he’d been unconscious.

“Would you have believed me?” Dany steadies himself with a hand on Ant’s shoulder as the older man catalogues Dany’s wounds with gentle touches.

“I don’t know.” Antonio raises his eyes from Dany’s newly forming bruises and Dany can see the rawness and knows his friend is barely holding it together.

“Hey, I’m ok.” Dany slides his hand up to cup the back of Antonio’s neck and pull him closer.

“I thought you were going to die.” There’s a catch in Antonio’s voice and then he’s reaching for him and crashing their lips together. It’s desperate and messy and Dany feels like he can barely breathe and realises he doesn’t want to, doesn’t want his to end.

Antonio’s hands move over his chest and down his side. Dany gasps as Antonio’s fingers brush the new line of stitches and they break apart.

“We should cover that up.”  Antonio turns away quickly and busies himself in the first aid kit looking for a dressing.

Dany steadies himself against the table as Antonio fixes the dressing to his skin, and catches his hand as he begins to turn away.

“Antonio...” he trails off.  
“I shouldn't have kissed you, I’m sorry.” Antonio tugs his hand away and steps back.

“I need more time, I’m just glad you are alive.”

Dany nods once, swallowing the words of protest that claw at his insides. He reaches for a hoodie obviously appropriated from marketing and pulls it over his head before heading out of the room.

He finds her in the workshop attaching a cap to the end of a piece of plastic pipe. He doesn’t speak just reaches for the pile of endcaps and silicon and starts assembly.

He reaches for a container of nuts and bolts but Natasha shakers her head.

“No need for that, Dany, I was thinking a little more flash and bang.” 

There’s the hum of vibration and she reaches for her pocket. She thumbs the screen and slides the phone across to him.

“It seems we made an impression.”

Dany glances at the screen.

**N.**

**Looks like you kicked the hornet’s nest. Paris cleared out, the party is coming to you.**

**I’ll send the venue and time asap.**

**Let me know if you need a plus one.**

**C.**

He looks up and she’s smiling faintly, fingers brushing the small golden arrow charm around her neck.

“How do you do it?”

She tips her head at him and for a moment he thinks she’s going to brush him off then she stops.

“We’re as honest as we can be with each other,  we trust each others skills, we don’t ask questions we don’t want to know the answer to.” She pauses before adding, “we both chose this life.”

Dany’s hand tightens on the plastic pipe and it creaks in his grip.

“I didn’t.”

“We put this group down and you can disappear. You don’t have to keep fighting, choose another life. I’ll put a detail on Antonio to make sure they leave him alone after you are gone.”

“Just leave?” His words are quiet.

“You did before.” There’s a coolness to her voice now and he realises she is pushing him, trying to get a reaction, he’s just not sure what reaction she wants.

“This way at least one of you gets to have a normal life.”

“You’re right.” Dany wants to scream, but his voice stays calm.

“No.”  
They both turn at the voice.

“No. Dany, you don’t get to run away again.” Antonio pushes some drinks and sandwiches he found in the canteen across the workbench at them and turns to Natasha.

“There has to be another way.”

“Antonio, if Daniil stays they will keep coming, we can set them back by taking out this cell but they won’t stop until we take them all down.”

“So take them down.”

“it’s not that easy, Dany is not the only one they want, they are all over the world, we would have to take down the entire operation.”

“Europe?”

“Yes”

“Asia?”

“Ye-es” she frowns at him.

Dany joins in.

“Russia? South america? The Middle East?”

She sighs in understanding.

“It will be dangerous. If we’re gone, Antonio,  you can go on with your life.”

“I did that once without Dany,” His eyes are hard. “It didn’t feel like much of a life.”

Dany turns to the smaller man, trying to tamp down the flicker of hope that lights in his chest.

“But you said.”

“I said I needed time, I don’t think I could cope with losing you forever, I already thought I’d done that once today.”

Daniil closes his eyes as The flame in his chest turns to ice, he couldn’t guarantee that that kind of thing wouldn’t happen again, he didn’t know if he could keep them safe, if he could keep Antonio safe.

“It’s too much of a risk.”

“We takes risks everyday.” Antonio reaches a hand out and catches Dany’s fingers in his own.

"I chose a life of risk, and this..." Ant says, gesturing at the row of tubes Natasha is now filling with white powder.

  
 "This may not be what I had in mind, but might as well take the risks for something worth fighting for. We're in this together."

  
Dany swallows hard as Antonio tugs on his fingers pulling him close. He wraps his arms around him pressing his face into the shorter man’s neck letting out a soft sigh as Antonio presses a kiss to the soft skin of his shoulder.

They spring apart as Natasha clears her throat on the other side of the bench.

“Well then, we’ve got some work to do.”

 

Dany reaches out gives Antonio’s hand a squeeze.

 

“Yes, we do.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Warning Minor Character death- I kill off Dany's trainer Pyry. Sorry Pyry.
> 
> This would not have been written without my boo, T. you are my muse.
> 
> My version of Natasha is based off a hybrid of the Marvel Movies Natasha and Richard K Morgan's BRILLIANT Black Widow Mini Series. Go download it and read it, it's everything you wanted for a backstory and didn't get from the movies, and yes there is sterility but it doesn't make Natasha less of a woman, she is just fucking badass.
> 
> Is this worth continuing? There's more in my head but I'm not sure F1 fandom likes crossovers.


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